


Bluebell

by vermicious_knid



Series: Then there's you [2]
Category: I Am The Night (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 03:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18044642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vermicious_knid/pseuds/vermicious_knid





	Bluebell

The riots are over, and Jay publishes the story in the wake.

 

Of course when the police go looking for the doctor in his palace, they find nothing. The place has been left untouched, but nobody can get hold of the staff who worked there, and every person who says they were once a client of his, now firmly denies it.

 

It’s almost like before when everyone pretended not to know – except now its not only pretending. Corinna Hodel conveniently leaves for her home in monte carlo, and the house in los angeles is all but abandoned, postcards spilling over in her mailbox.

 

But it is a different kind of silence than before. It is a silence of defeat, not fear.

* * *

 

His career has jumpstarted somewhat, now. He works for a new paper – they read his piece of course, everyone has. He tries to keep a low profile about it, and whenever anyone questions him about it a little too much, start asking about Fauna – he shuts down.

 

And he feels that raw anger bubbling underneath the surface still, his hands itching to strangle someone who managed to escape.

 

* * *

 

Fauna listens to music without really hearing it. Everyone is talking about the Beatles at the university, everyone is so careless about their youth, and they laugh and smoke in the classrooms. She had been to San Francisco before with her mother a few times, and thought that it might as well be a nice place to live.

 

Best of all, it is close to the ocean. On still nights, it almost looks like the surface of the moon. She is only enrolled in one class – and sits in on art history in the afternoons.

 

She doesn’t stay for the entire lecture. She’ll look at maybe three or four slides of Picasso paintings, of abstract art explained by the professor in a calm, rational voice in the darkened classroom. Then she’ll blink rapidly, itch an invisible spot on her arm and slowly collect her things and leave.

 

* * *

 

She doesn’t have a phone, but she does have an address where letters are delivered. But the good thing about newspapers and gossip magazines is that they don't have the time to write letters.

* * *

 

It is wholly unexpected, when she sees him outside the local police station, arguing with an officer by the looks of it. His blue eyes flash, and the officer next to him sighs, annoyed. He looks healthier, she thinks. But there are shadows under his eyes.

 

The university is just around the corner, and she still has a book open in her hands about the poetry of Emily Dickinson. She lowers it to stare at him for a moment. She’s suddenly unsure of what to do. Part of her wants to keep walking and ignore him. Because there is so much fear still in her, so much barely hidden horror.

 

But before she can think better of it, she has crossed the street and walked up to him.

 

The look on his face when he sees her is priceless, and he seems to forget all about the argument he was having two seconds ago.

 

They have coffee and pie at a diner nearby. Peculiarly, he can’t seem to stop staring at her. He pinches her arm playfully, to which she almost stabs him with a tiny fork. He leans back and smiles, but there is concern dancing in his eyes as he watches her eat.

 

”Are you eating, like at all?”

 

”Of course I am. Are you sleeping?”

 

Jay shrugs and grunts, and begins to tear up his tiny white paper napkin.

 

”Eh, if you ask me it’s an overrated thing. They don’t teach you that in school.”

 

”What were you doing at the station?” he asks, licking her spoon. He unfolds a wad of paper from his pocket and looks it over – hastily scribbled notes.

 

”Research. Haven’t you heard about the zodiac killer?”

 

”Yeah, I heard.”

 

”You’re a uni kid now, right?”

 

”I’m being careful, it’s alright.” she says, almost rolling her eyes. He’s quiet for a long time after that, shifting around in his chair. It’s clear he wants to say something but doesn’t quite know how.

 

”So..how have you been since, you know? ”

 

It is a loaded question. But she appreciates that he asks. Nobody, not even her own mother has asked. But no matter how hard she tries to find the words to answer him, she simply can’t. Instead she eyes the red-pink smears on her plate and thinks of red paintings and burning windows.

 

* * *

 

He is only in the city for a little while, he says. Then he tells her quite clearly which hotel he’s staying at, like he wants her to remember it. When she gets up to leave the diner, he quickly reaches out for her hand – not grabbing it, just barely touching.

 

”You know if you...if you need something. That’s where I’ll be, okay?”

 

* * *

 

Turns out that someone at campus wasn’t careful.

 

She wakes in the middle of the night when she hears people knocking on doors, of bare feet walking down the hall outside her room.

 

”Is it him, is it the killer?”

 

”Did someone call the police?”

 

”I can’t believe they won’t let us go outside!”

 

She hears these whispered conversations from her bed, and soon she’s wide awake. She gets up and looks out the window – there’s two police cars on the driveway, officers with flashlights on the lawn. She shrugs on a bathrobe and joins a cluster of female students in the hallway.

 

”What’s going on?” she asks. 

 

”We’re not sure – it seems that someone from our house got killed, but it could be someone from Kappa.”

 

”Killed, here?” Fauna asks, her voice shrill and strange. Her question goes by ignored.

 

Two girls are standing by the window, one of them comforting the other, who is crying.

 

”I can’t find Stacey, was she supposed to stay with her boyfriend tonight?”

 

”Yeah, for the weekend.”

 

Someone screams downstairs and she flinches.

 

”This is ridiculous, I just want a smoke and the police says we can’t leave until tomorrow. Bullshit.”

 

Fauna watches and listens, panic steadily rising in her chest. Slowly, she walks back to her own room and gets dressed. Then, careful to make sure that nobody is looking, she opens her own window and climbs out, shimmying down the drainpipe.

 

* * *

 

The streets are empty and cold at night, and she forgot to bring a jacket. But the panic is still there, keeping her almost delirious, with only one goal in mind.

 

The hotel is open around the clock, and she’s never been more grateful. The man at the desk looks at her with disapproval, but lets her borrow the phone to call up to Jay’s room. She feels calm, the thinks. In control.

 

He comes down and fetches her, not bothering to put on either socks or shoes – he looks like he just woke up, but upon seeing her his face opens up, like there will always be that everburning energy just for her. He puts an arm around her and shivers at how cold she is.

 

”Kid, what is it? Did something happen?”

 

The tears spring up unbidden, as natural as rain. Once in his room he fetches a blanket from the bed and puts it around her rubbing at her arms to make her warm. She sits down on the bed and starts babbling, words coming in short bursts.

 

”A girl died at my campus, and I didn’t know her but – it was close and I looked out the window and thought I saw someone. I thought...I thought I saw him Jay, but it wasn't...it couldn't have been _him_.”

 

She is staring at nothing now and it scares him a little. He is unprepared for this, never seen her so distraught before.

 

”Hey, hey it’s alright. You’re safe - ” he says, but the words seem to have no meaning.

 

 She’s hyperventilating now, seeing something he can only guess at, eyes wide and glassy-looking. Or rather, he can guess. And it pains him that that bastard is still lurking around in her head. She’s too young to have those kinds of ghosts, it’s not fair.

 

He gathers her to him and hugs her tightly.

 

” I won’t let anyone ever hurt you, do you hear me? Never. ” he says, his voice low and dangerous, unhinged.

 

But for what it’s worth, she believes him.


End file.
